Resentment, grudge, and bitterness are rooted in negative thoughts that can poison us emotionally, mentally, and even physically.
Although we can’t completely prevent people from wronging or hurting us, we can choose to forgive and move on instead of holding onto the memory of what they did wrong and how we felt about it.
Of course, forgiveness and letting go are a lot easier in theory.
However, carrying the burden of people’s wrongdoings in our hearts can make us bitter and lead to depression and anxiety.
Remember that your life is happening now, and when you hold a grudge, you anchor yourself in the past and project old hurt into your present and future experiences.
Here are 60 Holding Grudges quotes to help you get over hurtful feelings and find inner peace.
Best Holding Grudges Quotes
- “At the heart of all anger, all grudges, and all resentment, you’ll always find a fear that hopes to stay anonymous.” – Donald L. Hicks
- “Every grudge, if it is to stand the test of time, relies on the certainty of a selective memory.” – A. M. Shine
- “I do not have the luxury to keep enemies or to hold grudges a lifetime, or to wallow in things that stresses me, my energy are entirely for those things that bring me peace and for them I’ll pursue foolhardy” – Kelly Iyogun
- “Tomorrow’s not promised. You may love someone; you may have a grudge because of something that they did to you, and it was unfair, but life’s not fair. Life is very short, so clean up your grudges. Let’s not hold them.” – Mya
- “Holding onto anger is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.” – Buddha
- “We cannot embrace God’s forgiveness if we are so busy clinging to past wounds and nursing old grudges.” – T. D. Jakes
- “We are all children of the Great Spirit; we all belong to Mother Earth. Our planet is in great trouble, and if we keep carrying old grudges and do not work together, we will all die.” – Chief Seattle
- “You can never reach closure or peace with a situation until you stop holding grudges.” – Bonnie Eaker Weil
- “There is enough heartache and sorrow in this life without our adding to it through our own stubbornness, bitterness, and resentment.” – Dieter F. Uchtdorf
- “Life appears to me too short to be spent in nursing animosity or registering wrongs.” – Charlotte Bronte
- “We often hold a grudge because we don’t want to let the other person off the hook. But who’s really hooked: the one who’s moved on or the one who’s holding on?” – Lori Deschene
- “Work is love made visible. And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy. For if you bake bread with indifference, you bake a bitter bread that feeds but half man’s hunger. And if you grudge the crushing of the grapes, your grudge distills a poison in the wine. And if you sing though as angels, and love not the singing, you muffle man’s ears to the voices of the day and the voices of the night.” – Khalil Gibran
- “I see no point in holding grudges. I’d rather not have any negativity within me.” – Zeenat Aman
- “Holding a grudge against someone means you think you know what they deserve, and you take it upon yourself to give it to them.” – Timothy Keller
- “There is no evidence that dogs have the kind of complex emotional lives and value systems that we do. It’s one reason why we love them so much, in fact. They are neither ‘good’ nor ‘bad.’ They don’t hold grudges, act in petty ways, or seek revenge. They read our moods, but not our minds.” – Jon Katz
- “A pure soul actually carries nothing. No hatred, no love.” – Meghna Sodha
- “I learned a long time ago that you need to bury the hatchet. No need to hold grudges. That only weighs you down.” – Ken Shamrock
- “No matter what happens, never hold grudges. Grudges are the worst things in life. No matter if that grudge is justified, it’s the poison that kills entire cities.” – Pepper Winters
Holding Grudges Quotes: Nursing a Grudge Is a Needless Burden
- “There’s enormous energy required to carry grudges ― enormous energy! And I’m getting too old to expend my energy that way because I think every person has a limited amount of energy. So I have given up all grudges.” – Ed Koch
- “At least in my life, I cannot hold onto grudges. It’s a waste of energy, a waste of time.” – Phil Anselmo
- “Resentment or grudges do no harm to the person against whom you hold these feelings, but every day and every night of your life, they are eating at you.” – Norman Vincent Peale
- “Grudges seldom hurt anyone except the one bearing them.” – Sherrilyn Kenyon
- “The grudge you hold on to is like a hot coal that you intend to throw at someone; only you’re the one who gets burned.” – Gautama Buddha
- “To be wronged is nothing unless you continue to remember it.” – Confucius
- “I used to hold grudges until I realized that most people are narcissistic and their actions are driven by an unhealthy self-interest and not by maliciousness towards me. I have since freed myself from this needless burden.” – Dr. Steve Maraboli
- “The knowledge of the past stays with us. To let go is to release the images and emotions, the grudges and fears, the clingings and disappointments of the past that bind our spirit.” –Jack Kornfield
- “Rather than hold grudges, I prefer to remember the lessons learnt to keep me prepared for our next encounter.” – Natalie Tomlinson
- “When you hold a grudge, you want someone else’s sorrow to reflect your level of hurt, but the two rarely meet.” – Steve Maraboli
- “Resentments and grudges are two of the main culprits that perpetuate cycles of self-abuse and victimhood. Stowed away inside you like parasites, they deplete you of your God-given life force and separate you from your inherent worth, your joy, and the love in your heart.” – Debbie Ford
- “Resentment and grudges are things we dare not collect in our spirits, for they will spoil and rot, producing poison that will contaminate our words as well as our actions.” – Rick Orrell
- “I don’t hold grudges… I just cut people off. I don’t see a point in willingly subjecting myself to constantly being hurt by the same people.” – Nitya Prakash
- “Resentment and holding grudges are impediments to growth.” – Donna Kendall
- “So many people get involved with carrying grudges and having these moral battles with people, where they cast themselves as the righteous, and the other guy is the dirtbag. They waste tons of energy on it, create all kinds of darkness around themselves and the other person. It gets you nothing.” – Stephen J. Cannell
- “Holding a grudge will only affect you. The other person might not even care about the fact that you resent him or her.” – Foster J. Pickton
- “Holding grudges is harboring hatred. Afterward, if these people who hate so much were honest, they might tell you about the pain they processed in letting hatred motivate them so much, and for so long.” – Michael Jean Nystrom-Schut
Holding Grudges Quotes: Practicing Forgiveness
- “He who holds grudges against other people or hatred in his heart will never be truly happy until he has forgiven and let go of that anger by the best possible means.” – John Lennon
- “A life lived without forgiveness is a prison.” – William Arthur Ward
- “Anyone can hold a grudge, but it takes a person with character to forgive. When you forgive, you release yourself from a painful burden. Forgiveness doesn’t mean what happened was OK, and it doesn’t mean that person should still be welcome in your life. It just means you have made peace with the pain and are ready to let it go.” – Doe Zantamata
- “Not forgiving is like drinking rat poison and then waiting for the rat to die.” – Anne Lamott
- “Holding grudges only exacerbates the situation.” – Mark Boynton
- “Holding a grudge doesn’t make you strong; it makes you bitter. Forgiving doesn’t make you weak; it sets you free.” – Dave Willis
- “Grudges are for those who insist that they are owed something; forgiveness, however, is for those who are substantial enough to move on.” – Criss Jami, Salomé
- “Holding grudges. Judging others. Hating. Wanting to cause harm. Withholding forgiveness. Gossiping. Ridiculing. Ignoring others. Withholding mercy. Throwing stones. STOP IT!” – Dieter F. Uchtdorf
- “Holding a grudge will only destroy yourself. To forgive will cleanse it.” – Mark McCallister
- “If we think of our life as a journey, we don’t want to move into our future, lugging along the heavy baggage of our past. One way to lighten the load is to work on forgiveness and acceptance.” – Sonia Choquette
- “Hold no grudges and practice forgiveness. This is the key to having peace in all your relationships.” – Wayne W. Dyer
- “I’m just a person who forgives and forgets. I have a hard time holding grudges.” – Zachery Ty Bryan
- “If we can forgive everyone, regardless of what he or she may have done, we nourish the soul and allow our whole being to feel good. To hold a grudge against anyone is like carrying the devil on your shoulders. It is our willingness to forgive and forget that casts away such a burden and brings light into our hearts, freeing us from many ill feelings against our fellow human beings.” – Sydney Banks
- “True forgiveness deals with the past, all of the past, to make the future possible. We cannot go on nursing grudges even vicariously for those who cannot speak for themselves any longer. We have to accept that we do what we do for generations past, present and yet to come. That is what makes a community a community or a people a people-for better or for worse.” – Desmond Tutu
Holding Grudges Quotes: Letting Go!
- “Holding grudges are like a tree holding onto its leaves in the fall. Better just let go.” – Richard S. Conde
- “Let go! How would your life be different if you learned to let go of things that have already let go of you? From relationships long gone, to old grudges, to regrets, to all the ‘could’ve’ and ‘should’ve,’ to the dead friendships you still hang on to. Free yourself from the burden of a past you cannot change.” – Dr. Steve Maraboli
- “Let today be the day you stop being haunted by the ghost of yesterday. Holding a grudge and harboring anger or resentment is poison to the soul. Get even with people… but not those who have hurt us, forget them, instead, get even with those who have helped us.” – Steve Maraboli
- “Grudges are a waste of perfect happiness. Laugh when you can. Apologize when you should and let go of what you can’t change.” – Drake
- “The idea of letting go of the grudge is to deal with the pain without re-traumatizing self.” – Ryan Kent
- “Let today be the day you finally release yourself from the imprisonment of past grudges and anger. Simplify your life. Let go of the poisonous past and live the abundantly beautiful present… today.” – Dr. Steve Maraboli
- “Grudges are like hand grenades: it is wise to release them before they destroy you.” – Barbara Johnson
- “I believe that life is short, and there is too much time wasted bearing grudges, and I like to move on.” – Sam Taylor-Johnson
- “Holding grudges, having animosity, or harboring bad feelings towards someone else will keep you anchored to your past and prevent you from attaining all of the success that awaits you in your future.” – Lionel L. Nowell
- “I’ve always hated the idea of carrying grudges and resentments around like a load of moldy suitcases.” – Victoria Coren Mitchell
- “At some point, you have to forget about grudges because they only hurt.” – Taylor Swift
